A response to yesterday’s feeble Bittergate attack ad. The left’s been singing his praises the last few days for “counterpunching” when he’s in a tight spot, a trait that appeals to the fightin’ nutroots in someone they like and which would be cited as a failure to accept responsibility in someone they don’t, like McCain or even Hillary Clinton. Naturally left unmentioned here is the allegation that it was Obama’s own supporters who were booing her. Watch, then read on:Here’s the new LA Times poll, putting her lead on life support in Pennsylvania and giving him a five-point advantage in Indiana when yesterday’s Survey USA poll had her up by 16. It was taken after Bittergate broke, too, so there’s no shoe waiting to drop here. What gives? Maybe this:

One reason Clinton is struggling in Indiana and North Carolina is that a mainstay of her coalition in earlier contests — women — have been defecting. In Indiana, the poll found women split their vote, 35% for each candidate. In North Carolina, they favored Obama, 43% to 36%.

That’s a lot of undecided women, which may bode well for Her Majesty given the huge advantage she enjoyed among late deciders in Ohio and Texas. Beyond that, most of the good news is for McCain, not her: More than 40% in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina expect Wright to be a problem for Obama in the general even as the sore loser contingent grows ever larger:

There are some ominous signs that the party will not easily unify after a long and contentious primary fight. Fully 30% of Clinton supporters in North Carolina said they would switch to McCain if Obama is the nominee (only 14% of Obama backers would defect if Clinton was the nominee).

No questions were asked of Bittergate, but here’s another “counterpunch” that may prove useful to the GOP going forward, followed by Obama’s biggest fan acknowledging an inconvenient truth by way of gloss. Exit quotation: “I think it was what he thinks.”